to hang vs: but I will aggrauate my voyce fo, that I will roare you as gently as any fucking doue; I will roare you and t'were any nightingale.

Quin. You can play no part but Piramus, for Piramus is a sweet fac't man, a proper man as one fhal fee in a fommers day; a moft louely gentlemanlike man, therefore you must needs play Piramus.

Bot. Well, I will vndertake it. What beard were I best -to play it in?

Quin. Why, what you will.

Bot. I will discharge it, in eyther your straw-colour beard, your orange tawny beard, your purple in graine beard, or your french crowne colour beard, your perfit yellow.

Quin. Some of your french crownes haue no haire at all; and then you will play bare fac't. But mafters heere are your parts, and I am to entreat you, request you, and defire you, to con them' by too morrow night and meete me in the palace wood, a mile without the towne, by moonelight, there we will rehearse: for if we meete in the citty, we shall be dogd with company, and our deuifes knownė. In the meane time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play wants. I pray you faile me not.

Bot. We will meete, and there we may rehearse § moreobscenely and couragiously. Take paines, be perfit, adieu. Quin. At the dukes oke we meete.

Bot. Enough, hold or cut bow-strings.

Exeunt.

Enter a Fairy at one doore, and Robin Good-fellow at another.

Robin. How now fpirit, whether wander you?

Fai. Ouer hill, ouer dale, * through bush * through brier, Quer parke, ouer pale, * through flood, * through fire,

I do wander euery where, fwifter then the moons sphere;

And I ferue the Fairy Queen, to dew her orbes vpon the greene. The cowflips tall her penfioners be,

In their gold coats, fpots you fee,

Those be rubies, fairy fauours,

In those freckles, liue their fauors,

I must go feeke fome dew drops here,
And hang a pearle in euery cowflips eare.
Farwell thou lob of fpirits, Ile be gone,
Our queene and all her elues come here anon,

Rob. The king doth keepe his revels heere to night,
Take heed the queene come not within his fight,
For Oberon is paffing fell and wrath,

Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A louely boy ftollen from an Indian king,
She neuer had fo fweete a changeling,
And iealous Oberon would haue the childe,
Knight of his traine, to trace the forrefts wilde.
But fhe, perforce with-holds the loued boy,
Crownes him with flowers, and makes him all her ioy.
And now they never meete in groue, or greene,
By fountaine cleere, or fpangled ftarlight sheene,
But they do fquare, that all their elues for feare
Creepe into acorne cups, and hide them there.

Fai. Either I mistake your fhape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knauish spirit,
Call'd Robin Good-fellow. Are you not hee,
That frights the maidens of the villagree,
Skim milke, and fometimes labour in the querne,
And bootleffe make the breathleffe hufwife cherne,
And fometime make the drinke to beare no barme,
Mif-leade night-wanderers, laughing at their harme,
Those that hobgoblin call you, and fweete Puck,
You do their worke, and they shall haue good lucke.
Are not you he?

(the night, Rob. Thou speak'st aright; I am that merry wanderer of

I ieaft to Oberon, and make him fmile,

When I a fat and beane-fed horse beguile;

Neighing in likeneffe of a filly foale,
And fometime lurke I in a goffips bole,
In very likeneffe of a rofted crab,

And when the drinkes, against her lips I bob,
And on her withered dewlop poure the ale.
The wifest aunt telling the faddest tale,
Sometime for three foote ftoole, mistaketh me,
Then flip I from her bum, downe topples fhe,
And tailour cryes, and fals into a coffe,

And then the whole quire hold their hips, and loffe,
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and sweare,
A merrier houre was neuer wafted there.

But roome Fairy, here comes Oberon.

Fai. And here my mistreffe: would that he were gone,

Enter the King of Fairies at one doore with his traine, and the
Queene at another with hers.

Ob. Ill met by moone-light, proud Tytania.
Queene. What, iealous Oberon? Fairy skip hence.

I haue forfworne his bed and company.

Ob. Tarry rafh wanton; am not I thy lord?
Qu. Then I muft be thy lady: but I know
When thou haft ftollen away from Fairy Land,
And in the shape of Corin, fat all day,
Playing on pipes of corne, and verfing loue,
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here
Come from the fartheft fteepe of India?
But that forfooth the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskind miftreffe, and your warrior loue,
To Thefeus must be wedded; and you come,
To give their bed ioy and profperity.

Ob. How canft thou thus for fhame, Tytania,
Glance at my credite, with Hippolita ?

Knowing I know thy loue to Thefeus.

Didft not thou leade him through the glimmering night,

From Perigenia, whom he rauifhed?

And make him with faire Eagles breake his faith
With Ariadne, and Antiopa?

Queene. These are the forgeries of iealoufie,
And neuer fince the middle fommers spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forreft or mead,
By paued fountaine, or by rufhy brooke,
Or in the beached margent of the fea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling winde,
But with thy brawles thou haft difturbd our sport.
Therefore the windes, pyping to vs in vaine,
As in reuenge, haue fuckt vp from the fea,
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land,
Hath every pelting riuer made fo proud,
That they haue ouer-borne their continents.
The oxe hath therefore ftretcht his yoke in vaine,
The ploughman loft his sweat, and the greene corne
Hath rotted, ere his youth attaind a beard:
The fold stands empty, in the drowned field,
And crowes are fatted with the murrion flocke,
The nine mens morris is filld up with mud,
And the queint mazes in the wanton greene,
For lacke of tread, are vndiftinguishable.
The humane mortals want their winter heere,
No night is now with hymme or carroll bleft; i
Therefore the moone (the gouerneffe of floods)
Pale in her anger, washes all the aire;

*

That rheumaticke diseases do abound.
And through this diftemperature, we fee
The feafons alter; † hoared headed frofts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

* Thorough.

+ Hoary.

And

And on old Hyems chinne and icie crowne,
An odorous chaplet of fweete fommer buds.
Is as in mockery set. The spring, the fommer,
The childing autumne, angry winter change
Their wonted liueries, and the mazed world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which;
And this fame progeny of euils,

Comes from our debate, from our diffention,

We are their parents and originall.

Oberon. Do you amend it then, it lyes in you,
Why fhould Titania croffe her Oberon?

I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.

Queene. Set your heart at reft,

The Fairy Land buies not the childe of me,
His mother was a votreffe of my order,
And in the spiced Indian aire, by night
Full often hath fhe goffipt by my fide,
And fat with me on Neptunes yellow fands,
Marking th'embarked traders on the flood,
When we haue laught to fee the failes conceiue,
And grow big bellied with the wanton winde,
Which the with pretty and with swimming gate,
Following (her wombe then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate, and faile vpon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and returne againe,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.
But fhe being mortall, of that boy did dye,
And for her fake do I reare vp her boy,
And for her fake I will not part with him.

Ob. How long within this wood intend you stay?
Queen. Perchance till after Thefeus wedding day.

If you will patiently dance in our round,

VOL. I.

B

And